1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of infection control, more specifically, the present invention relates to a sanitary mat suspended below a shower chair seat for collecting human waste before it contacts and contaminates a shower room floor.
2. Background Art
The utility of providing a chair for use by the physically challenged or the infirm while within a bathtub or shower environment has long been known. Many bathtub and shower chairs can be found in the art. However, such prior art devices have one or more drawbacks.
Many prior art devices have limited utility beyond providing the seating function making such devices relatively less versatile. On the other hand, some devices are unusually complex in design making them relatively expensive to build and maintain. Still other bathing chairs are unduly difficult to operate. These chairs may also be intimidating to the targeted users for a variety of reasons when the chairs are used either at home or in an institutional setting.
While in a patient care facility, patients may come into contact with human fecal waste due to improper methods of disposal. In nursing facilities, rehab facilities, and hospitals patients frequently may use conventional shower chairs to help with their fatigue if they are unable to stand long enough to take a shower. While seated in a shower chair a patient may lose control of their bowels and accidentally defecate on the shower room floor. A variety of reasons may cause such an event. For example, a patient may be on antibiotic therapy causing diarrhea or a stroke may cause a patient to lose control of their bowels. With few people realizing the magnitude and impact of this problem, this specific need within the health care industry has not been widely addressed. When a patient accidentally defecates onto the floor while taking a shower, the fecal matter must be removed either by a caregiver using gloves and toilet tissue or the feces may be washed down the shower drain using the shower water stream. The next ambulatory patient may then end up standing in this area of fecal contamination that was not properly sanitized after the previous event, possibly subjecting the ambulatory patient to bacterial infection due to the fecal contamination.
Such a defecation event also involves a dignity issue for both the patient and the caregiver. The patient may become extremely embarrassed because of the defecation and feel the need to apologize for the act. The caregiver may attempt to reassure the patient that they should not be embarrassed or ashamed of the incident. However, the caregiver must still oftentimes manually clean and/or remove the feces from the shower room floor.
Little attention has been given in the prior art to this long standing problem. Many conventional shower chairs, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,517,704 to Dagostino, may be used to locate a seated patient over a conventional toilet for defecation purposes but provide no means of collecting fecal material in a shower environment. Alternatively, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,279,178 to Hill, a pan may be removably receivable between a pair of flanges in order to act as a toilet pan for a user.
Therefore, there is a longfelt need in the art for a shower chair dignity mat used in a bathtub or shower environment that overcomes the drawbacks found in prior art devices. Such a device must be relatively simple in design and operation and must have a range of adaptability to allow customization and retrofitting of such a device onto the wide variety of conventional shower chairs known within the art. The present invention provides a waste collection device that collects any patient defecation or other bodily waste before it contacts and thereby contaminates a shower room floor. In this manner, the present inventive device serves to prevent the spread of infection while further reducing patient anxiety and simultaneously fostering a greater sense of well being.